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Kamikaze veteran upset at retreat from Japanese pacifism

ELIZABETH JACKSON: He volunteered to fight and die as one of Japan's feared kamikaze.

Now, 93-year old Tadamasa Iwai is warning that the country's prime minister is trying to take Japan back to its imperialist past.

Tomorrow, Shinzo Abe's conservative forces are expected to romp to victory in Upper House elections, giving the prime minister control of the parliament and boosting his chances of revising Japan's pacifist constitution.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo on one old soldier's struggle to stop his country lurching further to the right.

MARK WILLACY: They were the kamikaze, or the divine wind; the squadrons of suicide attackers that rained death from the skies.

They sank dozens of ships and killed nearly five-thousand sailors, in a last ditch attempt to slow the allied advance in World War Two.

Tadamasa Iwai was one of those who volunteered for martyrdom; although, unlike many of his comrades, his desire was not to die for emperor and country.

TADAMASA IWAI (translated): I wasn't happy about volunteering, the now 93-year-old tells me. But I knew I was destined to die in the war. So I thought why not die instantly rather than suffering. That's why I volunteered for a suicide mission he says.

MARK WILLACY: But the young Tadamasa Iwai would miss his chance for martyrdom; because he would be struck down by tuberculosis towards the end of the war.

Not that he feels any guilt, quite the contrary.

The 93-year-old is now living peacefully with his wife in the Tokyo suburbs, fully aware of the futility of war.

He's also keenly aware of the folly of tampering with Japan's post-war pacifist constitution...

"The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to amend the constitution to take Japan back to the old imperial system" warns Tadamasa Iwai. "Abe is trying to change the self-defence forces and turn them into an army. This is the most dangerous government since the War he tells me."

The prime minister Shinzo Abe has certainly not hidden his desire to revise the ultra-liberal constitution.

Many like political analyst Jeff Kingston from Tokyo's Temple University says the right-wing leader wants to rewrite history.

JEFF KINGSTON: I think he wants to present a glorifying, vindicating narrative that shows Japan's War time actions in a positive light. There's so much in post-War Japan to be proud of, why try to glorify a shabby past?

MARK WILLACY: Particularly, the prime minister would like to change Article 96, which stipulates that any amendment to the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament, plus a majority in a public referendum.

If Shinzo Abe does well in this weekend's Upper House elections, as expected, Mr Abe could then move to water down what many see as the most important article of the constitution.

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